(1/172) Recovery of the vestibulocolic reflex after aminoglycoside ototoxicity in domestic chickens.

Avian auditory and vestibular hair cells regenerate after damage by ototoxic drugs, but until recently there was little evidence that regenerated vestibular hair cells function normally. In an earlier study we showed that the vestibuloocular reflex (VOR) is eliminated with aminoglycoside antibiotic treatment and recovers as hair cells regenerate. The VOR, which stabilizes the eye in the head, is an open-loop system that is thought to depend largely on regularly firing afferents. Recovery of the VOR is highly correlated with the regeneration of type I hair cells. In contrast, the vestibulocolic reflex (VCR), which stabilizes the head in space, is a closed-loop, negative-feedback system that seems to depend more on irregularly firing afferent input and is thought to be subserved by different circuitry than the VOR. We examined whether this different reflex also of vestibular origin would show similar recovery after hair cell regeneration. Lesions of the vestibular hair cells of 10-day-old chicks were created by a 5-day course of streptomycin sulfate. One day after completion of streptomycin treatment there was no measurable VCR gain, and total hair cell density was approximately 35% of that in untreated, age-matched controls. At 2 wk postlesion there was significant recovery of the VCR; at this time two subjects showed VCR gains within the range of control chicks. At 3 wk postlesion all subjects showed VCR gains and phase shifts within the normal range. These data show that the VCR recovers before the VOR. Unlike VOR gain, recovering VCR gain correlates equally well with the density of regenerating type I and type II vestibular hair cells, except at high frequencies. Several factors other than hair cell regeneration, such as length of stereocilia, reafferentation of hair cells, and compensation involving central neural pathways, may be involved in behavioral recovery. Our data suggest that one or more of these factors differentially affect the recovery of these two vestibular reflexes. (+info)

(2/172) Magnetic resonance cisternography using the fast spin echo method for the evaluation of vestibular schwannoma.

Neuroimaging of vestibular schwannoma was performed with the fat-suppression spoiled gradient recalled acquisition in the steady state (SPGR) method and magnetic resonance (MR) cisternography, which is a fast spin echo method using a long echo train length, for the preoperative evaluation of the lateral extension of the tumor in the internal auditory canal, and the anatomical identification of the posterior semicircular canal and the nerves in the canal distal to the tumor. The SPGR method overestimated the lateral extension in eight cases, probably because of enhancement of the nerves adjacent to the tumor in the canal. The posterior semicircular canal could not be clearly identified, and the cranial nerves in the canal were shown only as a nerve bundle. In contrast, MR cisternography showed clear images of the lateral extension of the tumor and the facial and cochlear nerves adjacent to the tumor in the internal auditory canal. The anatomical location of the posterior semicircular canal was also clearly shown. These preoperative findings are very useful to plan the extent to which the internal auditory canal can be opened, and for intraoperative identification of the nerves in the canal. MR cisternography is less invasive since no contrast material or radiation is required, as with thin-slice high-resolution computed tomography (CT). MR cisternography should replace high-resolution CT for the preoperative neuroradiological evaluation of vestibular schwannoma. (+info)

(3/172) Firing behavior of vestibular neurons during active and passive head movements: vestibulo-spinal and other non-eye-movement related neurons.

The firing behavior of 51 non-eye movement related central vestibular neurons that were sensitive to passive head rotation in the plane of the horizontal semicircular canal was studied in three squirrel monkeys whose heads were free to move in the horizontal plane. Unit sensitivity to active head movements during spontaneous gaze saccades was compared with sensitivity to passive head rotation. Most units (29/35 tested) were activated at monosynaptic latencies following electrical stimulation of the ipsilateral vestibular nerve. Nine were vestibulo-spinal units that were antidromically activated following electrical stimulation of the ventromedial funiculi of the spinal cord at C1. All of the units were less sensitive to active head movements than to passive whole body rotation. In the majority of cells (37/51, 73%), including all nine identified vestibulo-spinal units, the vestibular signals related to active head movements were canceled. The remaining units (n = 14, 27%) were sensitive to active head movements, but their responses were attenuated by 20-75%. Most units were nearly as sensitive to passive head-on-trunk rotation as they were to whole body rotation; this suggests that vestibular signals related to active head movements were cancelled primarily by subtraction of a head movement efference copy signal. The sensitivity of most units to passive whole body rotation was unchanged during gaze saccades. A fundamental feature of sensory processing is the ability to distinguish between self-generated and externally induced sensory events. Our observations suggest that the distinction is made at an early stage of processing in the vestibular system. (+info)

(4/172) Integration of vestibular and head movement signals in the vestibular nuclei during whole-body rotation.

Single-unit recordings were obtained from 107 horizontal semicircular canal-related central vestibular neurons in three alert squirrel monkeys during passive sinusoidal whole-body rotation (WBR) while the head was free to move in the yaw plane (2.3 Hz, 20 degrees /s). Most of the units were identified as secondary vestibular neurons by electrical stimulation of the ipsilateral vestibular nerve (61/80 tested). Both non-eye-movement (n = 52) and eye-movement-related (n = 55) units were studied. Unit responses recorded when the head was free to move were compared with responses recorded when the head was restrained from moving. WBR in the absence of a visual target evoked a compensatory vestibulocollic reflex (VCR) that effectively reduced the head velocity in space by an average of 33 +/- 14%. In 73 units, the compensatory head movements were sufficiently large to permit the effect of the VCR on vestibular signal processing to be assessed quantitatively. The VCR affected the rotational responses of different vestibular neurons in different ways. Approximately one-half of the units (34/73, 47%) had responses that decreased as head velocity decreased. However, the responses of many other units (24/73) showed little change. These cells had signals that were better correlated with trunk velocity than with head velocity. The remaining units had responses that were significantly larger (15/73, 21%) when the VCR produced a decrease in head velocity. Eye-movement-related units tended to have rotational responses that were correlated with head velocity. On the other hand, non-eye-movement units tended to have rotational responses that were better correlated with trunk velocity. We conclude that sensory vestibular signals are transformed from head-in-space coordinates to trunk-in-space coordinates on many secondary vestibular neurons in the vestibular nuclei by the addition of inputs related to head rotation on the trunk. This coordinate transformation is presumably important for controlling postural reflexes and constructing a central percept of body orientation and movement in space. (+info)

Regularly discharging vestibular-nerve afferents innervating the semicircular canals were recorded extracellularly in anesthetized chinchillas undergoing high-frequency, high-velocity sinusoidal rotations. In the range from 2 to 20 Hz, with peak velocities of 151 degrees/s at 6 Hz and 52 degrees/s at 20 Hz, 67/70 (96%) maintained modulated discharge throughout the sinusoidal stimulus cycle without inhibitory cutoff or excitatory saturation. These afferents showed little harmonic distortion, no dependence of sensitivity on peak amplitude of stimulation, and no measurable half-cycle asymmetry. A transfer function fitting the data predicts no change in sensitivity (gain) of regularly discharging afferents over the frequencies tested but shows a phase lead with regard to head velocity increasing from 0 degrees at 2 Hz to 30 degrees at 20 Hz. These results indicate that regularly discharging afferents provide a plausible signal to drive the angular vestibuloocular reflex (VOR) even during high-frequency head motion but are not a likely source for nonlinearities present in the VOR. (+info)

(6/172) Receptor synapses without synaptic ribbons in the cochlea of the cat.

This report describes recepto-neural junctions thought to be chemical synapses without synaptic ribbons or vesicle aggregates. Such synapses occur in the cat between the outer hair cells of the cochlea and auditory nerve fibers. These synapses are formed by flat or indented junctions having symmetric membrane complexes associated with smooth endoplasmic reticulum and coated vesicles in the outer hair cell cytoplasm. Inner hair cells have receptoneural junctions with asymmetric membrane complexes; synaptic ribbons and vesicles gather at one type of junction, while the other type associates with endoplasmic reticulum. Gap junctions are not seen at cochlear synapses but do link supporting cells. The results suggest that inner and outer hair cell synapses have different properties and raise questions about the role of synaptic vesicles and endoplasmic reticulum in the storage and release of transmitters. (+info)

(7/172) Responses of reticulospinal neurons in intact lamprey to vestibular and visual inputs.

A lamprey maintains the dorsal-side-up orientation due to the activity of postural control system driven by vestibular input. Visual input can affect the body orientation: illumination of one eye evokes ipsilateral roll tilt. An important element of the postural network is the reticulospinal (RS) neurons transmitting commands from the brain stem to the spinal cord. Here we describe responses to vestibular and visual stimuli in RS neurons of the intact lamprey. We recorded activity from the axons of larger RS neurons with six extracellular electrodes chronically implanted on the surface of the spinal cord. From these multielectrode recordings of mass activity, discharges in individual axons were extracted by means of a spike-sorting program, and the axon position in the spinal cord and its conduction velocity were determined. Vestibular stimulation was performed by rotating the animal around its longitudinal axis in steps of 45 degrees through 360 degrees. Nonpatterned visual stimulation was performed by unilateral eye illumination. All RS neurons were classified into two groups depending on their pattern of response to vestibular and visual stimuli; the groups also differed in the axon position in the spinal cord and its conduction velocity. Each group consisted of two symmetrical, left and right, subgroups. In group 1 neurons, rotation of the animal evoked both dynamic and static responses; these responses were much larger when rotation was directed toward the contralateral labyrinth, and the dynamic responses to stepwise rotation occurred at any initial orientation of the animal, but they were more pronounced within the angular zone of 0-135 degrees. The zone of static responses approximately coincided with the zone of pronounced dynamic responses. The group 1 neurons received excitatory input from the ipsilateral eye and inhibitory input from the contralateral eye. When vestibular stimulation was combined with illumination of the ipsilateral eye, both dynamic and static vestibular responses were augmented. Contralateral eye illumination caused a decrease of both types of responses. Group 2 neurons responded dynamically to rotation in both directions throughout 360 degrees. They received excitatory inputs from both eyes. Axons of the group 2 neurons had higher conduction velocity and were located more medially in the spinal cord as compared with the group 1 neurons. We suggest that the reticulospinal neurons of group 1 constitute an essential part of the postural network in the lamprey. They transmit orientation-dependent command signals to the spinal cord causing postural corrections. The role of these neurons is discussed in relation to the model of the roll control system formulated in our previous studies. (+info)

We describe imaging findings of a patient with multiple intracranial lipomas, hypogenetic corpus callosum and a vestibular schwannoma. We did not find association of intracranial lipomas and vestibular schwannoma in English literature. (+info)